Why There Are So Few Pickup Trucks In Europe - Cheddar Examines

there's nothing more American than cowboy hats hotdogs Walmart and of course pickup trucks Chevy pickups have helped change the way America works and plays with the best gas mileage and it's built for take the Ford f-150 for example it's America's best selling vehicle and has been for 42 consecutive years of course across the pond things are different the best-selling cars are typically small hatchbacks like the Volkswagen Golf in fact you'll rarely ever see a citizen of Denmark driving a pickup truck so how did America fall in love with the pickup and why didn't your oh let's take a look [Music] in 1915 Chevrolet manufactured the model 490 which was aptly named after the vehicles listing price 490 dollars but these vehicles came with one downside they were sold with only the frames so customers had to purchase the body bed and cab separately and mostly from independent companies for an additional hundred dollars plus the all-american pickup truck began to pick up momentum among the general public with the burgeoning automotive industry after World War one American industrialist Henry Ford first noticed the pickup trucks used by the US military during the war and he predicted there to be a market for something similar among the American working class so here M top production on factory built trucks like the Ford Model T runabout which unlike its predecessor included a pickup bit due to this early success Ford released its new line of pickup trucks in 1948 the f-series the f-series encompasses both light duty and heavy duty trucks with the continuous success of the f-series other car companies began to pick up on America's growing call for pickups the chevrolet c/k now known as the silverado was introduced in 1975 and the first generation of the Dodge Ram in 1980 and over time they got bigger and bigger but Europe was not taking part in this pickup truck boom a smaller market for pickup trucks existed but even that consisted of more compact Japanese models for example in the first half of 2017 eighty thousand three hundred pickups were sold across Europe compared that number to the pickup market in the US where during the same period over two hundred thousand midsize pickups and over 1 million full-size pickups were sold so why hasn't a pickup game steamed in Europe well first let's get the easy answer out of the way gas prices across Europe are more than twice as high as prices in the United States as of this year in the u.s. the average price of a gallon of gas dollars and 40 cents in countries like France and Italy average prices can reach as high as six dollars and eight cents per gallon most of the most popular pickup trucks in America have large fuel tank capacities so this would set back European car owners a sizable amount of money a year just for gas they do use more conventional just because aerodynamics are great they're heavy as well so yes you do end up using more fuel take a look at the Ford f-150 it's tank can hold up to 36 gallons at a time on average a driver in Europe would have to pay around a hundred and eighty dollars per tank fill for the f-150 but fuel per se is not a major problem but it will be in the future where commercial vehicles have to reach tough at co2 targets meaning that they have to be at fuel efficient and there's no way you're going to be able to do that easily in a pickup truck because they're pretty simple things you know if you start adding a load of hybrid or electric technology in there it's gonna push the prices up to the point where people won't be interested if you followed even anything about French politics presses the last let's say year-and-a-half you've seen probably something about the yellow best protests happening around cities and countries and that was actually started because of raising of the gas tax and so people living in rural areas have to drive further they spent more time on the road and so while the gas tax was motivated by a desire to reduce consumption improve the environment it hit those people much harder but gas prices don't explain it all let's compare these two streets which one do you think is in Europe and which one is in the United States it's simple many urban European streets are thin and pickup trucks are usually wide with the rearview mirrors the Ford f-150 measures a little over 6 feet tall and about 8 feet wide these measurements are considerably larger than most European vehicles take Europe's best-selling car the Volkswagen Golf which is one and a half feet smaller in both directions now the u.s. interstate highway system calls for standard 12 foot wide lanes in Europe while Road measurements do vary from country to country the minimum width can range anywhere from 8.2 feet to 10 point 7 feet so driving one of these pickup trucks in an 8.2 foot lane would definitely come with its own set of challenges some of the urban road systems go back to medieval times where you know they're very nice they're very tight when arrow and it's very difficult to maneuver a pickup truck at some times I mean it's not doable and people you know but it takes a certain type of person to the confidence thanks most people just an actress confident enough to to drive one of these easily every day another reason why the pickup truck is not as popular in Europe comes down to Texas before consumers can start driving their truck around they first have to go through an extensive and more often than not customs clearance process the initial step in the process involves paying an import tax and Duty out of all the different types of vehicles pickup trucks have the heaviest import duties depending on his cargo loading size the duty can cost anywhere from 10 to 22 percent of the cost it took to important along with this additional expense consumers are also responsible for paying an import tax or value-added tax that ranges from 19 to 22 percent depending on the country generally the total added expenditure of the import tax and Duty will be around a third of the purchase price of the pickup and once these are paid multiple forms and documents are then required for processing these documents are filed in order to officially register the vehicle within the country so this part of customs clearance can take a significant amount of time to complete lastly the cultural significance of the pickup truck in America doesn't have the same effect on consumers in parts of Europe the pickup truck is sort of connected to almost this I would say cowboy image but this sort of very most Western independent rugged individual persona through its appearances in films and commercials the pickup truck has become an icon of the rugged American outdoors this particular aesthetic doesn't resonate to that extent with the large population in Europe although many people in Europe love the outdoors they know not necessarily wanting to present themselves in the car they drive the vehicle they drivers this sort of hunting shooting fishing type in the same way that perhaps they do in the States also you know we don't tow in this quite the same way despite all of these reasons the pickup truck has seen some spurts of growing popularity in recent years according to data gathered by jeido dynamics sales for the midsize pickup in Europe increased by 19% in the first half of 2017 this can be credited to changes in government regulations European countries started to enact strict fuel economy laws and emission standards that cause the market for the traditional body-on-frame SUVs like the Land Rover Defender to dwindle these SUVs were primarily used to haul large cargo like trailers and boats and now that they were discontinued European customers had to look elsewhere for such work crossovers forget it their small displacement engines wouldn't be able to provide enough torque needed to tow heavy equipment and thus enters the midsize pickup truck most notably the Ford Ranger with the exception of the Ranger there still is little American presence in the European truck market instead European automakers began to build their own versions of the All American vehicle they formed alliances with Japanese companies to build pickup trucks based on existing models there are cars like the mercedes-benz x-class and then Renault Alaska to name a few which were both built upon the skeletons of the Nissan Navara unfortunately this market has been seeing little success to continue production so manufacturers like mercedes-benz expect to cancel their pickup truck lines within 2020 the Ranger has done well at the back of that that's about as American as it gets the fact that the American pickup that has defined a generation of the country's working class and its outdoor adventure seeking families may just continue to struggle to see progress across Europe [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Cheddar

Views: 914,765

Rating: 4.7009854 out of 5

Keywords: Cheddar, cheddar explains, explainer, examines, pickup truck, pickup, europe, no pickups in europe, no pickup trucks in europe, united states, united stats vs europe, america, america vs europe, vehicles, transportation, ford f-150, dodge ram, chevrolet silverado, trucks, pickup truck fail, pickup truck fails, cars, car sales, paris, best selling trucks, americn trucks, ford

Id: MzeJmT84HEY

Length: 10min 19sec (619 seconds)

Published: Tue May 05 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/TownPro]

One of the comments on the video: 'I waited for the work aspect of the whole pick up thing. Because we don't have pickups doesn't mean we don't have to haul stuff. We have midsize flatbed trucks with often a Diesel engine putting out about 70 to 150 horse power. In Germany we call the flatbed itself and the whole cars: "Pritsche". Common manufacturers are Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Fiat (Iveco) etc. We also have big vans called "Sprinters" or "Sprinter class" named after the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vehicle. Both of these are more fuel efficient and have more usable space than any pick up truck.'

I think Europe is more sensible because it taxes gas to cover the externalities and infra the cars use. This video takes an American perspective on the issue, and kind of pro-car perspective where it more frames all this as a problem, while constantly showing marketing footage of pickup trucks. Also, the narrower roads of europe reduce speeding on average, and makes density and walkability better.

[u/cbernard73]

Petrol/gas is more expensive in Europe so Europeans are more conscious of fuel burn.

[u/mytyan]

They don't fit on the roads.